The creation of this museum corresponded to an increasing interest in
ethnographic collections as well as museums in Europe.
Located on city land at a site once known as Manhattan Square this
complex agglomeration of 22 structures is the result of numerous
building campaigns.

Calvert Vaux and Jacob Mould developed a general plan for the museum and
built its first wing in the Victorian High Gothic style at 79th Street and
Columbus Avenue. Vaux and Mould's original plan would have made the
museum the largest building on the continent. Although this never came to
pass, the museum benefitted from the Robber Barrons, who
made huge bequests in the 1880s, allowing the museum to expand along with
the growth of the Upper West Side.

Cady, Berg and See contributed a Romanesque Revival style addition on 77th
Street. With its massive facade of pink Vermont granite, low arched
windows, idiosyncratic turrets, huge carriage entrance and grand sweeping
staircase, this building monumentalizes the institution that it contains.
Charles Volz added a power plant on Columbus Avenue, while Trowbridge and
Livingston added more exhibit space and John Russell Pope designed the
Beaux-Arts style Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Wing on Central Park West.